Malting company Soufflet Malt is set to build a new facility in South Africa as part of a “commercial partnership” with Heineken.
The arrangement, announced this week, will see Soufflet spend EUR100m (US$108m) on a malting plant situated next to the brewer’s Sedibeng brewery on the outskirts of Johannesburg. The facility, which will have an annual production capacity of almost 100,000 tonnes, is expected to commence operations by mid-2027.
As well as committing to source all barley for the factory “locally”, Soufflet said the site will “produce 50% fewer emissions than the industry average by using trigeneration and solar energy”.
“This significant investment by Soufflet Malt, in partnership with our company, marks a monumental commitment to South Africa and is a venture we are immensely proud to be part of,” said the MD of Heineken Beverages, Jordi Borrut. “Our focus is on intensifying our support for local production, local sourcing and job creation.”
The Heineken Beverages division came into being after the group acquired Distell two years ago. The entity comprises the former Heineken SA assets along with Distell and Namibian Breweries, in which Heineken held a majority stake. The remaining 40.6% of Namibian Breweries is publicly listed.
At the time of the transaction, group CEO Dolf van den Brink hailed the creation of a “regional beverage champion, with a unique multicategory offer to better serve consumers, customers and create shared societal value across Southern Africa”.
